Northwest Computer Museum

Aim

Preserve/share the history of computers 1970+ to experience inc workshops to learn Coding, Electronics and create apps for VR & Mobiles

Protecting Our Technological History

(For Future Generations))

We are officially working with:

There is an identified need to provide a computer & internet museum for the people of Northwest area. There is only a handful of other such facilities in the UK. The “hands-on museum” will provide people with a sense of community, improve people’s knowledge of IT and provide training and job opportunities.

Northwest Computer Museum will bring old and new technology to the community. It will have a full computer museum with usable exhibits from the 1970s to date and workshops to help and train people from the young to the old in the usage of retro computers, different programming languages and programming of electronic boards such as Arduino/Raspberry PI Boards to design electronic projects.

From the understanding of old computers from the 70s to date, people will be able to use and learn how to program and use. This will give communities the understanding of computing from the past to date and the use of future technology, like the Microsoft Hololense. Importantly, the museum will be an interactive museum and always developing.

We will have the facilities for clubs and individual to gain more skills and to use the equipment that they would not be able to access before. There will be a vast amount of information on display for the old computers and the early days and the internet to date with the future of technology. 

We will work with both young & old, ex-forces and organisations to help them with the different technologies by giving them a basic understanding of what technologies used to be like by using the museum’s equipment. This can help to focus individuals and charity organisations on different areas of technology they can develop a career or interests in or which can help them in their organisations; and also using new technologies of today i.e. Virtual Reality to Windows Mixed Reality.

There will be a small onsite Internet Coffee room to allow people who cannot afford to have internet at home to use the internet at a small price with printing facilities.

Workshops will be offering training, such as, Programming Retro style, which will give a basic idea of programming to the latest languages like Visual Basic, C#, Python and SQL .

Also looking into City & Guilds Accreditation in computers for people to change or move into IT.

Activities

The activities will involve

-    A young person, family friendly and accessible fully working, interactive computer & internet museum, with computers from the 70s up to modern technology like VR

-    Access to wide variety of information technology facilities & training

-    Community internet café

-    Workshops, community classes and clubs, eg programming & app creation for modern devices eg VR

-    Annual events programme, with children, young people and families at the heart of it

-    Recycling of computers from businesses, reconditioning & redistributing them to sectors such as schools and youth clubs

The problems/issues we aim to address include:

Social and economic inequality/immobility amongst families and young people with cuts to education budgets, transport, libraries/youth clubs etc.

-    Almost 2/3 of Leigh’s communities are within the top 25% of the most deprived in England, 2 of which are in the top 1%.

-    20.5% of residents claim out of work benefits, above the wider borough average of 15.9%

-    Leigh library has 32 pcs, on average used by over 4,000 people/month, proving the need for more IT-based community accessible projects such as ours

-    We intend to take unemployed young people & train them to recondition the donated PCs before they are redistributed as described above. We have already had expressions of interest from such sectors who say they are interested in being involved in this scheme

-    The internet café will provide a community-based hub for anyone to use, at a low cost, but particularly with young people and families in mind who otherwise would not have access to basic IT services. Amongst other things this will help with retraining, job applications & numeracy/literacy and will also include leisure-based activities.

-    The project will provide a much-needed place where families can go to do things together, at a reasonable cost, which are informative, educational and fun. We also believe the project will provide alternative, positive activities for the younger part of the community

Who will benefit

This project will benefit multiple sectors of the local and wider community, but particularly

-    families

-    children & young people

-    socially and economically isolated/disadvantaged sectors such as older people, people on low incomes, people with physical, learning or mental disabilities

-    those individuals wanting retraining such as young people with limited formal qualifications and children/young people with physical, learning or mental health conditions

How to engage people

-    Social media has been the main platform for engaging families and young people

-    The website has also had a great deal of interest, with people subscribing to our mailing list to either volunteer or wanting to visit, asking where we are based and when we will be open, from all over the North of England

-    We have also attended several business expos which have generated interest from individuals and companies wanting to be involved

-    We have also been in the local press 

-    Cross promotion with other business and charities within the base of Leigh Spinners Mill

-    We have already established links with a local transport company who have agreed to provide a free of charge promotion to all local schools and colleges

All the above have proved very successful and they will be continuously used on an ongoing basis to engage people

How it differs from or compliments similar projects

There is nothing like this project in the North of England that encompasses all the elements of

-    A museum with working, hands-on exhibits & historical facts

-    Training and workshop facilities with basic to advanced courses

-    A community-based internet café

-    Being both educational and entertaining, family friendly and value for money

We believe the Computer Museum will meet the following Aims and Objectives:

• Provide vital IT Skills
• Support the education of local people.
• Give a sense of belonging for the Community.
• Promote links to other social groups and strengthen our community.
• Provide opportunities to increase community led activities.
  
  Through providing: - 
• Education, training and work experience opportunities.
• Local facilities and events for all the community
• Workshops, classes and clubs that are inclusive for all the Community.
• Volunteering and job opportunities.
• Book Swap facility.

Premises

The museum has secured premises at the Spinners Mills in Leigh. We are on the 4th floor, there are two lifts and stairs to our museum and on the same floor we have access to a exhibition area.

The premises are a Grade II listed building.

The funding will help in:-

• Decoration of the Area
• Purchasing of more exhibits
• Training Materials
• More Exhibit Cases for the Museum
• Purchase of technology in Future Exhibitions like Microsoft Hololense
• Setup a Video Pod and Real-time link to other computer museums
• Help with the advertising of the museum with website & Media

We have had funding from Wigan The Deal to get furniture for the museum 

Businesses who are supporting our project 

We are working closely with the following computer museums, so the community and visitors can experience more past exhibits and links with:

We are hoping that the museum will be opening in May/June this year. Help us to make this a place that people can experience from the past and learn new skills and helping people to develop new ideas and skills to work on future projects.

Thank you for reading this, if you would like more information, please contact me.

Joe Kay

This project successfully funded on 29th March 2021